[RFC] Transition tracker

[Luca Falavigna]

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Hello,

Currently, Ubuntu developers us Launchpad to track transitions and
complete tasks which involve several packages. There are two methods to
accomplish them, both have pros and cons.

* SINGLE BUG, MULTIPLE TASK
This method was chosen for python-xml transition [1] and gfortran
transition [2]. A single bug is filed, multiple tasks are added, one for
each package involved.
Pros:
	Common location for similar tasks
	Easy to track overall progress
Cons:
	Every change generates bugmail for all packages involved
        Package-specific discussion is difficult
	Launchpad doesn't scale well if package list is huge

* ONE PACKAGE, ONE BUG
This method has been chosen for Perl 5.10 transition in Intrepid. Many
bugs are filed, a bug is linked to only one package.
Pros:
	No excess of bugmail
	Launchpad handles workload perfectly
Cons:
	It's not so easy to track overall progress

The two methods achieve the same general goal but with completely
different approaches. Both have drawbacks which makes it difficult to
manage transitions using Launchpad.

In Ubuntu QA, we discussed to implement "transition tracker", a tool
which tries to automate creation and management of a given transition.
It will make use of Launchpad to file new bugs using the "one package,
one bug" method described above, but providing a centralized interface
which shows transition status and overall progress (how many bugs are
fixed or open, LP status, etc).
Preliminary code is available in a bzr branch [3] (it is a very young
project, it's not meant to be functional right now).

I would like to receive comments from other developers and Launchpad
hackers about the tracker idea, what is preferred method to track
transitions or any improvement we can do to the transition process.

[1] https://launchpad.net/bugs/199014
[2] https://launchpad.net/bugs/201962
[3] https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-qa/ubuntu-qa-tools/transitiontracker

Regards,

- --
 . ''`.      Luca Falavigna
 : :'  :  Ubuntu MOTU Developer
 `. `'`     Debian Maintainer
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